Formal Semantics of Heterogeneous CUDA-C: A Modular Approach with Applications
University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Proceedings SSV 2012, arXiv:1211.5873 (27 Nov 2012)
@article{2012arXiv1211.6193H,
author={Hathhorn}, C. and {Becchi}, M. and {Harrison}, W.~L. and {Procter}, A.},
title={"{Formal Semantics of Heterogeneous CUDA-C: A Modular Approach with Applications}"},
journal={ArXiv e-prints},
archivePrefix={"arXiv"},
eprint={1211.6193},
primaryClass={"cs.PL"},
keywords={Computer Science – Programming Languages},
year={2012},
month={nov},
adsurl={http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012arXiv1211.6193H},
adsnote={Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}
We extend an off-the-shelf, executable formal semantics of C (Ellison and Rosu’s K Framework semantics) with the core features of CUDA-C. The hybrid CPU/GPU computation model of CUDA-C presents challenges not just for programmers, but also for practitioners of formal methods. Our formal semantics helps expose and clarify these issues. We demonstrate the usefulness of our semantics by generating a tool from it capable of detecting some race conditions and deadlocks in CUDA-C programs. We discuss limitations of our model and argue that its extensibility can easily enable a wider range of verification tasks.
November 28, 2012 by hgpu
